Convention Countdown: Bricks by the Bay 2019

This is the first article of an ongoing series that will spotlight builders at upcoming LEGO fan conventions and events.

Some samples of Erik’s work.

Every year Erik Wilson and his brother looked forward to getting a Christmas package from their grandmother in Sweden. It arrived full of treasures: cookies, picture books and, best of all, LEGO sets from nearby Denmark. In those days LEGO wasn’t available in the United States and the pieces were either red or white.The boys built spaceships, castles and robots long before pre-designed modern sets arrived on the scene.

Years later Erik’s brother pulled out their old LEGO collection for his children and gave Erik a couple of modern sets as compensation. Erik thought, “Why would I want this stuff?” followed rapidly by “wait a minute these are really cool!”

Erik started buying more sets and has again built castles, spaceships and robots and found a special love of building models of classical Greek and Roman architecture including the Parthenon of Athens and the Colosseum of Rome. He builds other types of models including scenes made into trophies for prizes at the annual Bricks by the Bay convention. LEGO complements Erik’s job as a biochemist that also involves putting small pieces together and the rest of his family is now involved designing and building LEGO creations they have brought to the Bricks by the Bay convention too.

As president of Bricks by the Bay his time is now full of administrative duties but whenever he needs a break, he pulls out a box of bricks and creates something new!

Bricks by the Bay is a LEGO fan event in Santa Clara, California that takes place July 11-14, 2019. For more information about attending the convention or seeing the displays, you can go to the Bricks by the Bay webpage!

BrickJournal is committed to promoting and highlighting LEGO fan events. If you would liketo have your event or display featured here, you can send a news release query to brickjournal@gmail.com, title: LEGO Fan Event.